Insect control is a major concern and problem in animal husbandry. For example, it is known that face flies contribute to weight loss and slow weight gain in cattle. Either of these problems, of course, delay the shipping of cattle to market and/or reduce the price received for the animals at slaughter, thereby resulting in unnecessary hardship for the farmer.
In response to the insect problem, insecticides and other substances have been developed for effectively treating animals and relieving them of pests. Difficulties arise, however, in the ease and thoroughness of treatment application. Additionally, the duration of treatment effectiveness is also a major concern. Finally, the man-hours of labor needed to treat the cattle with insecticides must be considered.
Attempts have been made in the prior art to overcome the above-identified difficulties. Specially treated ear tags have been developed to rid the animals of pests for the entire season. Unfortunately, however, the labor expense involved in tagging the animals is significant and the tags themselves are quite expensive. Further, tag effectiveness varies with time, as well as with the weather conditions. Also, the number of insecticides that are appropriate for use in these tags is limited and the insect population is already showing signs of developing resistance due to the sublethal dosages emitted by the tags.
Spray devices have also been developed for applying a uniform spray to the animals. Advantageously, the improved coverage provided by the spray furnishes a lethal dosage for combatting pests. Also, the insecticide may easily be varied to avoid resistance without the expense of retagging.
Initially, the cattle had to be herded or driven past an individual operating a manual sprayer. This type of operation, however, proved to be too labor intensive and costly. In order to overcome this problem, automatic sprayers have been developed, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. NO. 3,032,011 to Stramel. In Strammel, the cow enters a stall of its own volition in order to feed from a box contained therein. When the cow lowers its head into the box, the head engages a switch that activates the spray jets that treat the cow.
The Stramel device, however, is not without its disadvantages. Since there is no enclosing structure, the spray is free to travel on the wind and blow into a neighboring field or pond, thereby causing possible contamination to the food or water supply. The wind, also, reduces the amount of spray and treatment actually reaching the animal possibly to sublethal levels. Additionally, the spray is free to contaminate the feed within the feed box of the Strammel apparatus. Further, there is no provision of a means for preventing the animal from being continuously sprayed should it move its head in and out of the feeder box as, for example, would occur in the situation where the animal scratches its chin or neck on the feeder box. This is because the scratching back-and-forth action of the animal's head would tend to engage the switch and activate the spray jets. In such an event, the animal could be dangeously oversprayed and the insecticide wasted. Also, the Strammel device is not readily transportable from field-to-field to meet the needs of the farmer.
Thus, a need is identified for a farm animal spraying system that provides greater effectiveness in combating pests while being more cost efficient and safer to the animal and the environment.